Yggdrasil

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The World Ash. Nine woods, nine leaves, and three herbs each for Ratatosk and Vidofnir, with three final herbs to placate Nidhogg.

Camphor and more camphor. Or menthol. Ish. It's immediately very astrigent.

This does mostly fade very quickly, but it doesn't leave much in its place. There's a faint woody note, still covered in the camphor-y menthol-y note (presumably some combination of the herbs listed).

As it dries further, it turns into a light wood scent with a kind of cooling affect. As I sniff it, my nose feels colder.

After half an hour or so, this suddenly and dramatically changes. The cooling note completely vanishes, leaving behind a warm, lovely, complex wooden scent. It doesn't have much throw, but it's really nice. It smells like walking through a dry forest during summer. The woods are varied and nothing competes for attention.

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Wet/Bottle - VERY woodsy, pine? Cedar? Also very heavily herby, and almost something citrus that could also very well tie into pine.

Wet/Skin (5 minutes) - The herbs are coming to a head, but I can't identify them by their own notes. They are very dark and heavy, however. It feels like a damp, dark forest so packed with foliage that you can't even see the sky. I'm liking it, but also feel like it's missing something, it needs something to bring it full circle.

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In the imp: A woodsy-herbal scent, but a very dry woodsy-herbal scent. Instead of fresh-cut timber and herbs right out of the ground, these are dry, dusty planks of wood, cut long ago, and dried herbs hanging in bunches in a kitchen. Alas, I can't pick out any specific woods or herbs.

Wet: Ooh, now that's more like it. The herbs are more dominant and a bit greener. I can almost pick out...pine? basil? Something brisk and fresh-smelling, on the verge of foody but not quite. There's also a sweet element rounding it all out, but it's more of a resinous sweetness than a floral one. Now it's a brisk, outdoorsy smell, like walking in the forest after a heavy rainstorm, smelling the sap from the trees and the wild herbs crushed under your feet.

Dry: Like others are saying, this one fades FAST. Barely an hour after application, it's a barely discernible, vaguely herbal soap. Very "meh" and underwhelming. I know aging can bring forward a great drydown to compensate for an unfortunate opening, but is there any way to extend an opening and nix a disappointing drydown?

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In the bottle: Green. Strong. Potent. Sharp. There must be pine or cedar here, it smells wonderful.

On my skin: More green! I love green. There is also a spiciness to this, which makes me think mint/spearmint/eucalyptus or even possibly lavender? That kind of zest. It takes a few minutes (about 10?) for the pine/cedar/serious and heavy green to start subsiding, leaving room for the minty aspect to bloom. I am not sure if this was me or someone next to me because I entered a bus at this point and I smelled mint shower gel, but I could not tell if I was the source of it. Will have to try again.

Drydown: Pity it fades relatively fast, although it does not morph much. I am not sure if it dried into a green/mint blend or just mint, I will give it a rerun and share.

Dry: More wood coming out. I think we had birch, and now is that the teakwood from Antikythera? Less root beer and mint, and more tangy wood furniture. This dries close to the skin, settles into something homey...

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In the imp and wet I get a blast of mint, pine, and a dead leaf scent. Makes me think of walking through a forest before the first snowfall. The mint and pine stays through dry, but it gets less mentholated and sweeter. It sort of reminds me of a soft, sweet eucalyptus.

Edited April 29, 2017 by roseus

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Dry: Medicinal herbs (as camphor and menthol) with warm from woods and bits of leaves. More dry wood than wet leaves and less obviously tiger balm-y as when wet.An hour in, Yggdrasil warms up to a rather masculine scent on me: dry woods and medicinal herbs. A very grown-up scent. The dry wood makes Yggdrasil to a very good all year round-scent, as it wroks as the dry woods in summer as well as woodsy dry wood in fall and winter.The herbs adds to a very clean feeling, as if it would match skin care products or bath items.The throw is mostly dry woods with hints of herbs and gets a push after its second hour.

Dominant notes: Medicinal herbs, dry wood.

Lasting: 3 hours

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Oh my. In the imp this is the most gorgeous golden wood blend, and on the skin the trend continues. This is warm, dry, beautiful wood; I can pick out cedar and birch, but not much else. It's very well-blended. As far as herbs go, all I'm getting is a sweet, soft eucalyptus that's totally gorgeous. My nose is basically attached to my arm at this point.

Totally unisex. Woody and herbal with just a touch of natural planty sweetness. I need a bottle or five.

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Oh! Interesting and so lovely, Yggdrasil is. My nose has been held hostage my its arresting scent: misty woods at first dawn, or maybe dusk. It starts bone chillingly cold, almost a snow note, but warms up surprisingly fast—maybe five minutes—melting the snow and immediately turning to mist in a piney, cedary forest. As it moves toward dry down, crushed leaves and herbs I can't quite place present themselves as the sun seems to warm them more, fading the chilly note (what I assume now to be menthol). By the end of wear, it's day time, and the woods are no longer lovely, dark, and deep, but instead inviting, mossy, and green. It recedes into a light almost citrusy woods finish. This is a forest I would love to live by. Talk about transcendental.

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I think this smells like a bundle of herbs that was just washed off. It's fresh and green with a touch of aquatics. I'd describe it as clean, but not necessarily soapy. There's a bit of woodiness when it dries, but it keeps the green herbiness throughout.

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In the imp: Dry woods with some herbs, something spicy, and something cool. I think the cool aspect might be eucalyptus?

Wet: Same. The dry woods are at the front of the scent, then there's a bit of warmth that I think could be a spice, and a menthol-like quality to the scent. As the scent dries down, the cool quality becomes more prominent.

Dry: The cool note is prominent for a while, and then the dry woods reassert themselves, so that I get more of a balance between the two. The herbs are also more present during this stage scent, but the scent itself stays really close to the skin.

Verdict: This one is nice. It's not one that I would likely reach for, as I don't really wear wood-y scents, but I like the cool aspect of the scent paired with the woods, and I'm tempted to keep it around just in case I am in the mood to wear a scent like this again (plus, I'm fond of Norse mythology)... but I hardly ever reach for imps over bottles.

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I had been curious about this obe for a while and got it as a frimp from the lab.

Fresh from the bottle it was almost unbearable because my skin chemistry amped the juniper like crazy and it just made me smell like gin. I lucked out though and after about 20 minutes it mellowed out quite a bit. An aquatic note came out and reminded me a bit of a sweeter, greener irish spring soap which I wasn't super thrilled about. After another half an hour or so it morphed again and became a wonderful green, woodsy scent which I don't have the words to describe beyond a desperate need to get a full bottle.

Very gender neutral, but can clearly run more masculine or feminine depending on a person's skin chemistry.

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In the imp: Is that cedar? There's cedar in here. I mean, I figured there would be, but I hoped the blend would be complex enough to keep it under control.

Wet, first 30 seconds: OH GOD CEDAR AND MENTHOL THIS WAS A MISTAKE

Wet, after that: No, wait, never mind, this is fine. False alarm. This is very foresty fresh, full of minty herbs and thrumming with life. It's so moist that if the mint weren't there this would be a very steamy jungle. It actually becomes a skin scent rather quickly, though I don't know if that's because the initial blast numbed my nose. The herbs aren't soapy and the mints aren't toothpastey, it's really quite well-blended and balanced.

Dry: There's an ever so faint thread of something dirty or dark hiding under the greenery, but I REALLY have to huff to find it. Other than that, it's not really morphing at all.

A harsh opening and short life means this is a no-go for me during the day, but I could see this being wonderful to help relax on a hot summer night when I can more appreciate the mint aspects. The opening blast had me thinking this was way too masculine for me, but the drydown is solidly neutral.

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This was a frimp, and of all of the BPAL woodsy/pine scents I've tried this is the closest to smelling like a proper northern pine forest. I actually really liked it, but sadly it started to irritate my skin, and trigger my sinus allergies.

In the bottle: Dried herbs, like shoving your face into a nice home-grown spice rack. And some strong minty resin smell binding them all together

Wet: Still lots of nice dry herbs, but the minty resin has changed into something much more pleasant. It's mint to be sure, but not straight menthol. It smells like a minty variant of 'generic pine' smell

Warming: Everything is starting to blend to make a really nice 'forest' smell. As in, it actually smells almost like real pine trees?! This actually surprised me, considering I'd never smelled a scent that came close to real trees. This is also where it started to irritate my skin.

drydown: This smells really nice! Like pine trees in winter. Close together in a grove, dead needles at your feet. Everything is dry but still alive, you get hints of bark and sap in addition to the needles. The scent of snow is in the air, crisp and chill. Sadly, this is where I started noticing my throat getting scratchy.

I'm really sad I'm allergic to this one. By the time the dry down hit I had to scrub it off. But for the time it was on, it was surprisingly nice! so far I've found no woodsy scents I'm not allergic to, so this one being no different doesn't really surprise me. I passed this on to a friend who really adored it, so thankfully I found someone who could make the most of it.

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Wet is like....whooooah herbaceous. With this strong sweet medicinal herb thing going on. Also sharp-herbal. Some wood. As green as possible.

It sort of mellows as it dries but that sweetness lingers. To me, this is living trees and picked herbs. Unfortunately, whichever herb is registering as 'medicinal' to me is dominating it and I find it kind of unpleasant. It's like... blunt and antiseptic. I wish I knew what it was so I could avoid it in the future.

This one is really interesting to me but I won't be using it because of that particular note.